Top 10 bizarre news stories from India

New Delhi: The media brings forth stories of incidents as they happen to the masses. Being a watchdog of democracy, it is the duty of media to unfold stories of the nation. These stories are somewhat unusual and never heard of. Here is a compilation of 10 such bizarre stories of India exposed by media which can leave you spellbound:1.Boy finds mother due to Google Earth Saroo Brierly's story is no less than a 70s Manmohan Desai Bollywood flick. He was traveling in a train with his brother. The next day he woke up and saw that he was nowhere to be seen. He then boarded the next train and reached Calcutta where he lived in slums for years until he was adopted by a Tasmanian couple.He grew up abroad but always wanted to meet his birth parents. One day, he started searching on Google Earth. He had vague memories of his birthplace which helped him find a place called Ganesh Talai in Khandwa (Madhya Pardesh), which was his native place. After reaching there and a couple of enquiries later, he stood before his mother after 25 years, both speechless. 2.Shanti DeviShanti Devi hailing from Delhi in 1930s claimed that her name was Ludgi in her past life and had died during child birth.She said that she lived in Mathura, was a mother of three children. Because of her repeated claims, her parents started investigating. It was found that a woman name Ludgi had died recently. Her parents took her to the village. She could easily speak the dialect of the villagers. There she recognized her past life husband and children.The case was brought to the attention of Mahatma Gandhi who set up a commission to investigate and a report was published in 1936. She gave 24 accurate statements matching confirmed facts about Ludgi's life. 3. Mayapuri radiation leakIn India, there are no such laws implemented related to waste recycling. Negligence on the part of industrial waste which is hazardous is observed. Mayapuri in Delhi is the biggest market of metal recycling in India. In February 2010, while dismantling a research irradiator owned by Delhi University, workers were exposed to heavy doses of radiation. This device had 11 pieces of cobalt-60 (a highly radioactive substance). One of the workers unaware of the hazardous nature of this substance carried the smallest of the fragment in wallet. He and six others later developed severe radiation burns and one of them died due to radiation poisoning. Delhi University was clearly to be blamed here. Instead of handling over the ageing equipment to concerned authorities, it was just auctioned to a scrap metal dealer. 4.Boy inhales fish into his lungsA young boy named Anil Barela aged 12 inhaled a live fish on being encouraged by his friends. Instead of going the usual smooth passage of alimentary canal, the fish went into the wind pipe and blocked the breathing passage of the boy. With his oxygen levels plummeting, he had to undergo a 45-minute procedure to remove the fish. Amazingly though on bronchoscopy the fish was still alive and taking its last breath. The boy survived the surgery. 5.Jadav Molai Payeng, the man behind Molai WoodsHe started planting trees on a sandbar when he was 16 after seeing the plight of endangered reptiles in the forests of Golaghat district in Assam. Now it is a full fledged forest called Molai forests named after him. It houses Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, over 100 deer and rabbits besides apes and several varieties of birds, including a large number of vultures. Bamboo covers an area of over 300 hectares. In 2008 forest officials were surprised to find such a dense forest in the middle of a sandbar.6.Baby tossing custom in KarnatakaThis might be the ultimate bizarre tradition. Babies in Karnataka are tossed from about three storey from a temple roof off the ground. Locals in the village of Nagrala believe the ritual brings health and good luck to the children. Most of the children are less than 2 years of age. Children are tossed by a man from the temple roof into the blankets below. 7. Wine drinking deity of UjjainKal Bhairav Nath is the guardian deity of the city of Ujjain. The temple is well known for its deity who drinks wine by the gallons. The main offering to the deity is wine. It is also the only Prasad given to the devotees. Liquor is poured into the mouth of deity. Devotees throng to this temple bearing bottles of wine as an offering. Liquor is available 365 days a year outside the temple. The temple is said to have been built by the Marathas. 8.Fireman takes over as air traffic controller at Tirupati AirportTirupati airport handles about seven flights a day and is the main landing point for visitors to the Tirupati Temple. Tirupati has no approach radar and pilots therefore totally rely on air traffic controllers to give them weather information and landing clearance. On one of the not so fortunate days in February of 2012, air traffic controller failed to show up. Airport Manager therefore directed airport fireman, Mr. Basha to take over the radio at the control tower. Basha was of course untrained in the new role assigned to him nor was he fluent in English.He however gave adequate support information for the airplane to touchdown safely. 9. Driverless car in Delhi, which then turned out to be a fake storyApparently, someone had a video footage of a car without a driver. The footage showed the car had just one person sitting on the passenger side of the car reading newspaper.The original owner of the car never knew that his car was running amok with no one on the steering wheel. The person who provided the video footage also had pictures of driver's compartment that clear ruled any special contraptions. Even the owner of the car denied any special equipment in the car. The news story went viral and calls were pouring in with people claiming to have spotted that car in many other cities too. When finally the driver of the car (dude on the passenger seat) was got hold of with the car, he obliged that it was him that was steering the car from passenger seat. He even demonstrated it in front of the camera. 10. Private medical colleges in Karnataka buy fake patients Healthcare system in India has been in the limelight many a times for their malpractices and carelessness. In November of 2012, an interesting news story came where private medical colleges in Karnataka were buying fake patients to be admitted. These colleges usually paid Rs. 500 per person to act as a patient before the committee from Medical Council of India for their annual inspection. Sometimes two to three hospitals exchanged the same patients just to satisfy the MCI norms.